If We Ever Meet Again
by N3KOMI
Summary: His head was pounding, and that was enough to tell him he was alive. Dammit. Hell would have been better than this. Anything would have been better than waking up alive, honestly... He was supposed to be with his mom. But no, she was... in heaven. He'd never get to see her, probably.


Entering the Metaverse had proven difficult, but thankfully, there were always ways to get into that space. A hidden area near the DIET building had been open to Persona users, and when entering the area, one of the members had screamed as it became distorted and landed them in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully, simply backing up out of the area was enough, but Yukari had refused to go along with the excavation after the scare (and no one blamed her).

It was Kei that found a body. He had covered his mouth with a hankerchief, and when Masao asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the small divet of rocks that was surrounded by crows.

The body was comatose, and was confirmed to be that of Goro Akechi, whom had been missing for three months.

Although he had been missing for an extended period of time, he had really only been comatose for three days. Time in the metaverse was strange, slowed down yet sped up. What feels like hours is usually only 30 mintues, and what feels like weeks is only a few hours. Because of this, he had not lost enough brain function to render him deceased.

Fuuka had found his shadow wandering in a forest nearby, amongst many fallen buildings resembling Tokyo. The black sillouette was raw mental power, separated from its body. All of Akechi's emotions, thoughts, and desires were in this form. It gave no fuss, and when touching it's only body, Akechi's mental state was confired to have been restored.

Strange how the Metaverse works. It is a mirror reflection, raw mental states and the collective unconscious pieced together in the form of shadows. Shadows were either wild dopplegangers, simple silouettes of people, or monsterous beings. Regardless, all shadows were the same entity- one, or several emotions, packed into a form. Residents of the Metaverse, demons, were an even stranger phenomenon. They were not mirrors, rather, entities of their own with personalities and wills. Beings known as "gods" were demons.

Regardless of the details, it was a miracle that Akechi was still alive.

\- Report number #263, 13:23:15 June 2nd, 2017, Mitsuru Kirijo.

* * *

His head was pounding, and that was enough to tell him he was alive. Well, that was shitty- he had an extended dream of wandering in the Metaverse, and now he was in a hospital bed, looking at a hospital ceiling. Dammit. Hell would have been better than this. Anything would have been better than waking up alive, honestly... maybe even waking up in a ditch. Then he could lay there and die. No one would let him die here.

And the worst part was that he started crying, and the doctor became aware of him. There was yelling- yelling of a miracle. He wasn't supposed to be alive...

He was supposed to be with his mom.

But no, she was... in heaven. He'd never get to see her, probably.

* * *

"Ah, sorry I'm late! My roommate drove me, but we got stuck in traffic."

Akechi's eyes roved over to the door. He had no idea who this person was, but there was a weirdly gentle presence about them. Something about them reminded him of Akira, and he turned away. He couldn't stand looking at this man's gentle smile.

Who dyes their hair that color, anyway? Hmm- upon a glance, Akechi thought it may be natural. An early onset of gray hairs. Poor guy. It made him look distinguished, however, and it was a lovely silver instead of that sickening yellow older folks often had.

He was cute, too. He could never find a girl that suited his fancy, it seemed.

The doctor turned to him in the bed, and Akechi looked at him with a vacant expression, almost telling him to get it over with. He hated being talked to like a child, which doctor's tended to do.

"Akechi-san, this is your counselor, Narukami Yu. He's not a psychiatrist yet, so he's only here to listen to you, so don't think he's gonna stuff you full of medicine or anything like that." The doctor looked to the well dressed young man, who only smiled. There was a hint of annoyance in his face- Akechi could immediately relate.

"I'll leave you two alone. Call if you need anything."

The doctor left, and Akechi could see an officer outside of the door glance in at him. Ah. They knew.

"You know about me," Akechi said, sitting up in bed and wincing. His body was weak.

"Hm?" Yu looked startled as the other spoke, not even having his papers out. "Well, yes- I know you're Goro Akechi."

"No..." Akechi looked at him, straight in the eyes. The other was not intimidated, and Akechi felt a swell of respect. "You know what I've done."

Yu simply blinked, as though trying to jog his memory with the statement. His eyes cleared and his brows rose slightly, and he nodded. He had very few expressions- just slight changes in his face. A detective could see it, but to anyone else, Yu probably looked blank and dead inside.

"Well, yes... you used your Persona to..." He paused, and Akechi immediately caught on to that statement.

"Persona- you said Persona!" He was sitting up now.

Yu nodded, "I'm... a member of the Shadow Operatives. We're a group of Persona users that protect the public from the Metaverse and anything related to it."

Akechi felt his heart sink. Why were all of the most interesting people Persona users? How come he wasn't special? He was the least interesting person he knew, and yet he had one. And this man had one- this man who seemed to fear nothing and was an emotional rollarcoaster in thoughts alone.

"So you aren't scared of me."

"I respect you," Yu smiled, "I also know that you're a very talented detective. But..."

He paused, pulling out his paperwork, sifting through it.

"I am here to understand you, listen to you. Not... condone you. You are a human, just like me. There's a reason for everything you do- every person has almost killed someone once. Even Persona users..."

He looks aside, a far-off look in his eyes. He must have almost crossed the line too. Akechi had almost wished he had, then someone could truly understand how he felt.

"Do you have any parents, Akechi?"

Akechi stared at him, annoyed at the change of subject.

"Tell me how you almost killed someone," he said, almost bratty, but didn't care about his tone.

Yu reeled back slightly, suprised, but not offended. A slight widening of the eyes, a couple of blinks, then that far off look again.

"Someone had... caused... my little sister to die."

Akechi felt his heart sink. Well shit, now he was a JERK.

Yu continued, "Where I come from, the means of entering the Metaverse is through a TV. If a non-Persona user entered the TV, the shadows there... would kill them. There was a murderer that was using this technique to kill women. I thought that this man, that had... caused my little sister to die... we assumed he was the murderer. And because of that, I almost..."

He clears his throat.

"I almost shoved him in, and let him die a slow death." Yu stared ahead, at the floor, vacant, but obviously trying to hold back the flood of emotions. Akechi knew this feeling. "I was so... infuriated. More than that. A fury so blinding it made your head throb. My best friend- my roommate now- we fought. Eventually, seeing his fury brought me to my senses."

He sighed, closed his eyes, and then looked up with a strained smile.

"And that's how I almost killed a man."

Akechi stared at him, his nails clicking together as he thought. Fidgeting. Where was his gloves?

"Why didn't you? What thought stopped you?"

Yu blinked, staring at Akechi, then looked away, lost in thought.

"Something wasn't right. The truth was the most important thing, and killing him would hide it. Killing him would... get rid of our only way of finding the real murderer."

He laughed bitterly, so forced it was grating, "As well as not... wanting to be a murderer myself, I guess."

"Do you think," Akechi stared at his feet at the end of the bed, his face relaxed, his head swimming with thoughts, "Do you think I'm a bad person for killing people?"

"I don't know," Yu shook his head, "I don't know you enough to determine that."

Akechi grunted, "Does it matter? I mean, look, I KILLED people. I shot their shadows in the head. They died in the real world shortly after, or just shut down completely. My rent was paid as I did it. I..."

He grew silent, bowing his head. A good for nothing hitman... it wasn't just that.

Why was he saying all of this to a stranger?

"My biological father convinced me to do it. I didn't want- I swear I didn't, but... he would make my life HELL... if I didn't..."

At first it had been nice, to be close enough to that man. He convinced himself he didn't WANT to be needed by him- that was a lie, of course. But he could convince himself, and others, of anything. He had charm like that.

He had charm from his father.

"I wanted to kill him for what he did to my mother and I. She's dead because of him."


End file.
